Part 4

In this situation it is left three or four hours. It gradually swells and breaks through the dry flour scattered on its surface. An additional quantity, (about one pailful,) of warm (liquor) water, in which one ounce of alum is dissolved, is now added, and the dough is made up into a paste as before; the whole is then covered up. In this situation it is left for four or five hours. This is called _setting half sponge_.

The whole is then intimately kneaded with more water, (about two pails full,) for upwards of an hour. The dough is cut into pieces with a knife, and penned to one side of the trough; some dry flour is sprinkled over it, and it is left to _prove_ in this state for about four hours. It is then kneaded again for half an hour. The dough is now taken out of the trough, put on the lid, cut into pieces, and weighed, in order to furnish the requisite quantity for each loaf.

The operation of moulding is peculiar, and can only be learnt by practice; it consists in cutting the mass of dough destined for a loaf, into two equal portions: they are kneaded either round or long, and one placed in a hollow made in the other, and the union is completed by a turn of the knuckles on the centre of the upper piece.

The loaves are left in the oven about two hours and a half, or three hours, when taken out of the oven, they are turned with their bottom side upwards to prevent them from splitting. They are then covered up with a blanket to cool slowly.

QUANTITY OF BREAD OBTAINABLE FROM A GIVEN QUANTITY OF WHEATEN FLOUR.

A sack of flour, weighing two hundred and eighty pounds, is made with five pounds of salt, and from three to four pints of yeast, into dough, with the requisite quantity of water, which varies according to the quality of the flour.

The older the flour, provided the wheat has been sound, and the flour well preserved, the greater will be the quantity of water required to convert it into a stiff dough, and the greater the produce of bread.

The quantity of flour for a quartern loaf is reckoned at an average, three pounds and a half, which produces, if the flour be of the best quality, five pounds avoirdupoise of dough. The quartern loaf produced from this quantity of flour weighs four pounds, five ounces and a half, and hence the dough loses, during baking, eleven ounces and a half.

The quantity of bread obtainable from the same quantity of flour is, however, much influenced by the manner in which the dough is fermented, and the skilful regulation of the heat employed for baking the bread.

A variation of temperature also makes a considerable difference to the baker’s profit or loss. In summer, a sack of flour will yield a quartern loaf more than in winter; and the sifting it, before it is wetted, if it does not make it produce more bread, certainly causes the loaves to be larger.

The loss of weight occasioned by the heat is proportional to the extent of the surface of the loaf, and to the length of time it remains in the oven. Hence the smaller the surface, or the nearer the figure of the loaf approaches to a globe, the smaller is the loss of weight sustained in baking; and the longer the loaf continues in the oven the greater is the loss.

A loaf that weighed just four pounds when taken out of the oven, after the usual baking, was put in again, and after ten minutes was found to have lost two ounces, and in ten minutes more it lost another ounce. The longer bread is kept the lighter it is, unless it be kept in a damp place, or wrapt round with a wet cloth, which is an excellent method of preserving bread fresh and free from mould, for a long time.

Home-made Wheaten Bread.

Take a bushel of wheaten flour, and put two third parts of it in one heap into a trough or tub; then dilute two pints of yeast with three or four pints of warm water, and add to this mixture from eight to ten ounces of salt. Make a hole in the middle of the heap of flour, pour the mixture of yeast, salt, and water into it, and knead the whole into an uniform stiff dough, with such an additional quantity of water as is requisite for that purpose, and suffer the dough to rise in a warm place.

When the dough has risen, and just begins again to subside, add to it gradually the remaining one third part of the flour; knead it again thoroughly, taking care to add gradually so much warm water as is sufficient to form the whole into a stiff tenaceous dough, and continue the kneading. At first the mass is very adhesive and clings to the fingers, but it becomes less so the longer the kneading is continued; and when the fist, on being withdrawn, leaves its perfect impression in the dough, none of it adhering to the fingers, the kneading may be discontinued. The dough may be then divided into loaf pieces, (of about 5lb. in weight). Knead each piece once more separately, and having made it up in the proper form, put it in a warm place, cover it up with a blanket to promote the last rising; and when this has taken place, put it into the oven. When the loaves are withdrawn they should be covered up with a blanket to cool as slowly as possible.

To make Pan Bread.

Mix up the flour, salt, and yeast, (See page 97), with the requisite portion of warm water, into a moderately stiff paste; but instead of causing part of the flour to ferment, (or setting the sponge), as stated in the preceding process, suffer the whole mass to rise at once. Then divide it into earthenware pans, or sheet iron moulds, and bake the loaves till nearly done, in a quick oven; at that time remove them out of the pans, or moulds, and set them on tins for a few minutes, in order that the crust may become brown, and when done wrap them up in flannel, and rasp them when cold.

Bread made in this manner is much more spongy or honeycombed, than bread made in the common way. It is essential that the dough be not so stiff, as when intended for common bread, moulded by the hand.

Brown Wheaten Bread.

Suppose a Winchester bushel of good wheat weighs fifty-nine pounds, let it be sent to the mill and ground; including the bran, the meal will weigh fifty-eight pounds, for not more than a pound will be lost in grinding.

Mix it up with water, yeast, and salt, like the dough of common bread, (See page 97); the mass, before it is put into the oven, will weigh about eighty-eight pounds.

Divide it into eighteen loaves, and put them into the oven; when thoroughly baked, and after they are drawn out and left two hours to cool, they will weigh seventy-four pounds and a half.

Mixed Wheaten Bread.

Take a peck of wheaten flour, the same quantity of oatmeal, and half a peck of boiled potatoes, skinned and mashed; let the mass be kneaded into a dough, with a proper quantity of yeast, salt, and warm milk; make the dough into loaves, and put them into the oven to bake.

The bread, thus prepared, rises well in the oven, is of a light brown colour, and by no means of an unpleasant flavour; it tastes so little of the oatmeal, as to be taken, by those who are unacquainted with its composition, for barley or rye bread. It is sufficiently moist, and, if put in a proper place, keeps well for a week.

Rolls, French Bread, Muffins and Crumpets.

The dough of which rolls are made by the generality of the London bakers, is suffered to _prove_, that is to rise more, than dough intended to be made into loaf-bread. It is, therefore, left in the kneading trough, whilst the loaves made of the same dough are in the oven. During this period it rises more, and the fermentation is further promoted, by placing the rolls, when moulded, in a warm place, to cause the dough to expand as much as possible. When this has taken place, they are put in the oven to be baked, which is effected in about twenty or thirty minutes. When taken out of the oven they are slightly brushed over with a buttered brush, which gives the top crust a shining appearance, they are then covered up with flannel to cool gradually.

I have witnessed at a baker’s, who has the reputation for making excellent rolls, forty-eight pounds of dough moulded into one hundred (penny) rolls; they weighed, when drawn out of the oven, twenty-six pounds.

The bread called in this metropolis French rolls, and French bread, is made precisely in the same manner, namely, from common bread dough, but of a less stiff consistence; they are suffered to rise to a greater extent than dough intended for loaf-bread.

Some bakers make rolls and French bread of a superior kind, for private families, in the following manner:

Put a peck of flour into the kneading trough, and sift it through a wire sieve, then rub in three quarters of a pound of butter, and, when it is intimately blended with the flour, mix up with it two quarts of warm milk, a quarter of a pound of salt, and a pint of yeast; let these be mixed with the flour, and a sufficient quantity of warm water to knead it into a dough; suffer it to stand two hours to prove, and then mould it into rolls, which are to be placed on tins, and set for an hour near the fire or in the proving closet. They are then put into a brisk oven for about twenty minutes, and when drawn, the crust is rasped.

The cakes, called in this metropolis, _muffins_ and _crumpets_, are baked, not in an oven, but on a hot iron plate.

For muffins, wheaten flour is made with water, or milk, into a batter or dough. To a quarter of a peck of flour is usually added three quarters of a pint of yeast, four ounces of salt, and so much water (or milk) slightly warmed, as is sufficient to form a dough of rather a soft consistence. Small portions of the dough are then put into holes, previously made in a layer of flour, about two inches thick, placed on a board, and the whole is covered up with a blanket and suffered to stand near a fire, to cause the muffin dough to rise. When this has been effected, the small cakes will exhibit a semi-globular shape. They are then carefully transferred on the heated iron plate to be baked, and when the bottom of the muffin begins to acquire a brown colour, they are turned and baked on the opposite side.

_Crumpets_ are made of a batter composed of flour, water (or milk), and a small quantity of yeast. To one pound of the best wheaten flour is usually added three table-spoonsful of yeast. A portion of the liquid paste, after having been suffered to rise, is poured on a heated iron plate, and quickly baked, like pancakes in a frying pan.

Barley Bread.

Barley, next to wheat, is the most profitable of the farinaceous grains, and when mixed with a small proportion of wheat flour, may be made into bread. Barley bread is not spongy, and feels heavier in the hand than wheaten bread.

To remedy this defect in part, it is always best to set the _sponge_ with wheat flour only, for barley flour does not readily ferment with yeast, and adding the barley flour, when the dough is intended to be made. Bread made in this way requires to be kept a longer time in the oven than wheaten bread, and the heat of the oven should also be somewhat greater; but barley bread is sometimes made without the addition of wheaten flour.

Suppose a bushel of barley to weigh fifty-two pounds and a half to be made into bread; let it be sent to the mill, and have the bran taken out, which, with what is lost in grinding and dressing, will probably reduce it to forty-four pounds. If the meal be kneaded into dough, with water, yeast, and salt, suffered to rise, and then divided into eight loaves, and thoroughly baked, they will weigh about sixty pounds, after drawn out of the oven, and left two hours to cool.

Barley bread is eaten by many of the farmers and labourers in husbandry, also by the miners in Devonshire and Cornwall.

Mixed Barley Bread.

Take four bushels of wheat ground to form one sort of flour, extracting only a very small quantity of the coarser bran.[6] Add to it three bushels and a half of barley flour, mix up the flour into a dough in the usual manner, with salt, yeast, and warm water, (See page 97), let it be divided into loaves, and put them into the oven made hotter than it would be for baking wheaten bread. Let them remain in the oven three hours and a half. In Yorkshire, bread made from a mixture of these grains is esteemed more wholesome to those who are used to it, than bread made from wheat alone.

Footnote 6:

From the Reports of the Board of Agriculture.

Rye Bread.

Rye is a grain whose cultivation is not much encouraged in this kingdom, but in the northern parts of Europe it is in very extensive use as a nourishing food for mankind. When made into bread alone, it is of a dark brown colour, and sweetish taste, and if eat by people unaccustomed to its use, it is found to have a laxative effect. In some parts of this kingdom, a mixture of rye and wheat is reckoned an excellent bread. In Yorkshire, bread made from a mixture of these two grains is esteemed.

The following method of making household rye bread, has been recommended by the board of agriculture.[7]

Footnote 7:

Account of Experiments tried by the Board of Agriculture, p. 12.

Suppose a bushel of rye to weigh sixty pounds, add to it a fourth part, or fifteen pounds of rice; this when ground has only the broad bran taken out, which seldom exceeds four and a half or five pounds for that quantity; it is thus directed to be prepared for household rye bread.

Take fourteen pounds of the mixed flour, a sufficient quantity of yeast, salt, and warm water, and let it be made in a dough, and baked in the usual way. It will produce twenty-two pounds weight of bread, which is a surplus of three pounds and a half in fourteen pounds, over and above what is usually produced in the common process of converting household wheat flour into bread.

Turnip Bread.

A very good turnip bread may be made by the following process: Let the turnips be pared and boiled. When they are soft enough, for being mashed, the greater part of the water should be pressed out of them, and they should be mixed with an equal quantity in weight of wheat flour. The dough may then be made in the usual manner, with yeast, salt, and warm water. It will rise well in the trough, and after being kneaded, it may be formed into loaves, and put into the oven. It requires to be baked rather longer than ordinary bread, and when taken from the oven is equally light and white, rather sweeter, with a slight but not disagreeable taste of the turnip. After it has been allowed to stand twelve hours, this taste is scarcely perceptible, and the smell is totally lost, and after an interval of twenty-four hours, it cannot be known that it has turnips in its composition, although it has still a peculiar sweetish taste, but by no means unpalatable. It keeps for upwards of a week.

Rice Bread.

Rice, though one of the roughest and driest of farinaceous vegetables, is converted by the Americans into a very pleasant fermented bread. The process is as follows: The grain is first washed by pouring water upon it, then stirring it, and changing the water until it be sufficiently cleansed. The water is afterwards drawn off, and the rice, being sufficiently drained, is put, while yet damp, into a mortar, and beaten to powder; it is now completely dried, and passed through a common hair sieve. The flour, thus obtained, is generally kneaded with a small proportion of Indian corn meal, and boiled into a thickish consistence; or sometimes it is mixed with boiled potatoes, and a small quantity of leaven, or yeast, is added to the mass. When it has fermented, sufficiently, the dough is put into pans, and placed in an oven. The bread made by this process is light and wholesome, pleasing to the eye, and agreeable to the taste. But rice flour will make excellent bread, without the addition of either potatoes, or any kind of meal. Let a sufficient quantity of the flour be put into a kneading trough; and at the same time let a due proportion of water be boiled in a cauldron, into which throw a few handfuls of rice in grain, and boil it till it break. This forms a thick and viscous substance, which is poured upon the flour, and the whole kneaded with a mixture of salt and yeast; the dough is then covered with warm clothes, and left to rise. In the process of fermentation, this dough, firm at first, becomes liquid as soup, and seems quite incapable of being wrought by the hand. To obviate this inconvenience, the oven is heated while the dough is rising; and when it has attained a proper temperature, a tinned box is taken, furnished with a handle long enough to reach to the end of the oven; a little water is poured into this box, which is then filled with dough, and covered with cabbage leaves and a leaf of paper. The box is thus committed to the oven, and suddenly reversed. The heat of the oven prevents the dough from spreading, and keeps it in the form which the box has given it. This bread is both beautiful and good; but when it becomes a little stale, loses much of its excellence. It comes out of the oven of a fine yellow colour, like pastry which has yolks of eggs in it. Other methods of making rice bread are the following:

1. Boil a quarter of a pound of rice till it is quite soft; then put it on the back part of a sieve to drain, and when it is cool, mix it up with three quarters of a pound of wheaten flour, a spoonful of yeast, and two ounces of salt. Let it stand for three hours, then knead it well, and roll it in about a handful of wheaten flour, so as to make the outside dry enough to put it in the oven. About an hour and a quarter will bake it, and it will produce one pound fourteen ounces of very good white bread, but it should not be cut till it is two days old. Another way is the following:

2. Take half a peck of rice flour, and one peck of wheaten flour, mix them together and knead the dough up with a sufficient quantity of salt, yeast, and warm water, as stated in page 97. Suffer it to ferment, divide it into eight loaves, and bake them.

3. Take a peck of rice, boil it over night till it becomes soft, then put it in a pan, and the next morning it will be found to have swelled prodigiously. A peck of potatoes should now be boiled, skinned, and mashed into a fine pulp, and while hot, be well kneaded up with the rice, and a peck of wheaten flour; a sufficient quantity of yeast and salt must now be added, and the dough left in the kneading trough to prove or ferment; and when well risen it may be divided into loaves and baked in the usual way.

Potatoe Bread.

Potatoes, mixed in various quantities, with flour, make a wholesome, nutritive, and pleasant bread. Various methods are employed for preparing the potatoes.

1. Pare a peck of potatoes, put them into a proper quantity of water, and boil them till they are reduced to a pulp, then beat them up into a smooth mass with the water they boiled in, and knead the mass, with two pecks of wheaten flour, with a sufficient quantity of yeast and salt, into a dough; cover it up, and allow it to ferment like common wheaten bread, then make it up into loaves and bake them. Another method is the following:

2. Take twelve pounds of the most mealy sort of peeled potatoes, boil and press them through a fine wire sieve, in such a manner as to reduce the roots, as nearly as possible, to a state of dry flour. Mix it up with twenty pounds of wheaten flour; and of this mixture make, and set the dough in the same manner as if the whole were wheaten flour. See page 97.

3. Take three pounds of potatoes, boil, skin, and mash them, and whilst warm, bruise them with a spoon, and put them into a dish before the fire, to let the moisture evaporate, stirring them frequently, that no part grows hard; when dry, rub them as fine as possible and add nine pounds of wheaten flour, and with a sufficient quantity of yeast and salt, knead it up as other dough; lay it a little while before the fire to ferment, and then divide it into loaves and bake them in a very hot oven. Another method is the following:

4. Boil and peel the potatoes as for eating, reduce them without any water to a fine meal or stiff paste. Add to two parts by weight of the paste, one part of potatoe starch, and half a part of wheaten flour, and having added to it salt and yeast, suffer it to ferment; mould the dough into loaves, and bake them in the usual manner.

M. Parmentier found, from a variety of experiments, that good bread might be made from a mixture of raw potatoe-pulp and wheaten meal, with the addition of yeast and salt; and Dr. Darwin asserts, that if eight pounds of good raw potatoes be grated into cold water, and after stirring the mixture the starch be left to subside, and when collected, mixed with eight pounds of boiled potatoes, the mass will make as good bread as that from the best wheaten flour.

Potatoe Rolls.

Bruise four pounds of boiled and skinned potatoes, with as much milk as will just produce a mass, which readily may be squeezed through a cullender, add this mass to wheaten flour paste of a middling stiffness, obtained from six pounds of wheaten flour; put it before a fire to rise, make it into rolls, and bake them in a quick oven. The rolls thus made will be more porous and light than common rolls.

Apple Bread.

M. Duduit de Maizieres, a French officer of the king’s household, has invented and practised with great success, a method of making bread of common apples, very far superior to potatoe bread. After having boiled one third of peeled apples, he bruised them, while quite warm, into two-thirds of flour, including the proper quantity of yeast, and kneaded the whole without water, the juice of the fruit being quite sufficient. When this mixture had acquired the consistency of paste, he put it into a vessel, in which he allowed it to rise for about twelve hours. By this process he obtained a very excellent bread, full of eyes, and extremely palatable and light.

Domestic Oven for Baking Bread.

The figure on the title page exhibits a convenient culinary oven for families who bake their own bread. It is usually erected on one side of the kitchen fire-place, and heated by a flue that passes from the fire-grate under the bottom of the oven. Although this is in many respects a convenient and neat way of heating the oven, yet the manner of managing the fire renders it only economical in families where a large fire is always kept up in the kitchen-grate. In small families it is far more economical to heat the oven by means of a separate fire-place built underneath it. A fire-place six inches wide, nine inches long, and six inches deep, is sufficient to heat an oven eighteen inches wide, twenty-four inches long, and from twelve to fifteen inches high, which is a convenient size for the baking of bread. The grate should be placed at least twelve inches below the bottom of the oven when the fuel employed is pit-coal; and, in order to prevent the fire from operating with too much violence upon any part of the oven, the brick-work should be sloped outwards and upwards on every side, from the top of the burning fuel, to the ends and sides of the bottom of the oven, that the whole may be exposed to the direct rays of the fire. If the fire-place be built in this manner, and properly managed, it is almost incredible how small a quantity of fuel will answer for heating the oven, and keeping it hot. In this small fire-place there is always a very strong draft of air passing into it, and this circumstance, which is unavoidable, renders it necessary to keep the fire-place door constantly closed, and to leave but a small opening, for the passage of the air, through the ash-pit. If these precautions are neglected, the fuel will be consumed very rapidly, the bottom of the oven will be burnt, and the oven get chilled as soon as the fire-place ceases to be filled with burning fuel. In an oven of this description, I have baked two loaves, each weighing five pounds, and fifteen rolls weighing two pounds, by means of half a peck (ten pounds) of coal.